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from June 22

The next, the third in a row Baku International Jazz Festival was held from the 7th of June 2007 to the 14th. As in the past years the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan, Friends of Azerbaijan Culture Foundation and Baku Jazz Center were the organizers of the Festival...>>>

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Press-Release from June 7, Year 2007So, Baku International Jazz Festival-2007 is open! The opening ceremony was held on the 7th of June at one of the most beautiful and loved places of our city – the Green Theatre. I would like to note that this was the very first concert after the recently opening ceremony of the Green Theatre itself, except of the official ceremonies, of course. I think due to that the sound engineers and the technicians were a little late with sound settings – they were unfamiliar with the stage, and they managed to fix and set the equipment only by the 6th of June. It shall be noted also that full sound was not achieved – the opening day of the Festival was not easy, the last arrangements were made. Nevertheless the sound engineers honorably managed the situation – although they were adapting to a new stage almost until the middle of the concert.
The concert started with performance of nagara player Natig Shirinov’s group. It will note that it was not the real jazz – but the opening ceremony received the emotional tone. Natig had performed previously several times at the projects of Azerbaijani jazzmen – it is Salman Gambarov’s project "Latif" and performance of Emil Ibrahim’s trio and Natig’s as well in Belgium in December last year. Some of Baku jazz lovers still remember Natig’s participation at jam sessions of the Festival-2005. This year Natig Shirinov will perform together with the youngest participant of the Festival Isfar Sarabskiy. I participated at a couple of rehearsals of the Isfar-Natig quartet and can say that their performance is promising to be very interesting. On the opening concert of the Festival Isfar and Natig performed in a duet. And already at home when I plugged my mobile to charge (the batteries were completely discharged because of continuous calls) I received a message with enthusiastic epithets about Isfar’s performance.
After Natig had left the stage the young musicians entered it. Baku jazz lovers already know the 12-year old pianist Fariz Asadov – he was a participant of the youth program of the festival last year. This year he also performed in a trio (more experienced musicians supported him) and a little violinist Turana Novruzova (she is 8 years old) came on the stage with Fariz and his partners. So Fariz had a chance to show himself in an accompaniment – which is not easy at such age. After Turana had left the stage the trio performed one more play – this time Monca. Emil Mammadov, a young but already experienced pianist replaced them on the stage – performances on all Baku festivals are on his account. This evening he performed alone. After him another talented pianist Shahin Novrasli came on the stage. He performed with his old friend, participant of all last Baku festivals, a bass from USA - Nathan Peck. I want to note that a few days before the festival a message was received from Montre that Shahin had passed the semi-final of the selection round for one of the most prestigious jazz festivals of the world.
After Shahin and Nathan Emotion group appeared on the stage under the leadership of saxophonist Akif Suleymanbeyli, performing smooth jazz. They were replaced with a group under the leadership of the producer of the Festival Emil Ibrahim (Emil Hasanov – bass-guitar, Vagif Aliyev – drums). A guest of the native town, vocalist Fuad Suleymanzadeh (he lives in Slovenia, but periodically comes to homeland) performed with them.
Our guests from Moscow closed the evening – the Green Wave group under Alexander Oseychuk’s management and a saxophonist Janna Ilmer performed with them. It is ungrateful thing to talk about Oseychuk’s regalia, it will be better to read about him on our web site. I am going just to note that Oseychuk had recently become a member of the Union of Composers of Russia – and the organizing committee of the Festival has availed itself of an opportunity to congratulate him on behalf of all Baku jazz lovers who were at the Green Theatre on this wonderful evening. Using the moment I want to remind that the drummer of the quartet Alexander Zinger was in Baku recently – he visited our city in September with Anatoliy Krol’s quartet. Oseychuk’s student saxophonist Timur Nekrasov also performed in that quartet; actually he left a very good impression.
With regards to the performance of our guests at the opening concert of the Festival I can only say that they have confirmed their high-class – and I am looking forward to seeing master-class, which will be today at 11 o’clock, and also performance of our guests from Russia; their performance will start at 18:30 at Baku Jazz Center. Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is performing at 9 in the evening at the Opera and Ballet Theatre – the rush around that concert is fabulous. And a jam session will end the first day of the Festival.
Rovshan Sananoglu

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Baku International Jazz Festival 2007 – is the next in series of Baku Jazz Festivals that started in 2005. At that time, in the beginning of April, was the start of the first Festival which generated a great interest of Bakunians and visitors of our city ...>>>